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A STUDY of the PREVALENCE of MENSTRUAL SYNCHRONY in the Dorlyiitories of BALL STATE U1tiversiry

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A STUDY of the PREVALENCE of MENSTRUAL SYNCHRONY in the Dorlyiitories of BALL STATE U1tiversiry A STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE OF MENSTRUAL SYNCHRONY IN THE DORlYiITORIES OF BALL STATE U1TIVERSIry An Honors Thesis (ID 499) by Kandice Welch Thesis Director Dr. Anne Cartwright Ball State University Muncie, Indiana May, 1978 Sf(.c \1 ·1\\eSI~> L ..') :.t1lti . -z.!t 11'6 \I \,\)1./5,'), ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express her appreciation for her thesis director, Dr. Anne Cartwright, for the valuable, but sometimes frustrating learning experience of writing an acceptable scientific paper. I would also like to thank the teachers Nho allowed me to canvas their classes for volunteers, and the subjects themselves wi thout ~Thom there would be no paper. The author "t'Tould like to acknowledge Dr. McComish for the use of his calculator. Special thanks are in order for my indispensable husband, Mike. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • • • . ii LIST OF APPE~IDICES . .. iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION......... • • 1 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE • . 2 III. MATERIALS AND METHODS . 14 IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION • . 17 - V. SUMMARY A~ID CONCLUSIONS . 22 LITERATURE CITED • • • • • • • • • . 23 iii LIST OF APPENDICES Page 1. Ball State University assurance and certifica- tion of revie't'j of a single project involving human subjects · · · · · • · · · • • · • · · • · 25 2. Packet of forms used in study • · · • • · • · · 28 3. Ba clc ground information on control subjects · • · 34 4. Background information on experimental subjel~ts 35 5. First day of menses for control subjects, August through April • · · • · • · • · · · • • • 36 6. First day of menses for experimental subjects, August through April · • • · · · • • · · · • • · 37 7. Differences between onset of menses for sub- - ject pairs • • · · · · • · · • • · · • • · • • • 38 8. t-test results · · · · · · • · · · · · • • • • · 39 iv INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to determine l'rhether a relationship existed betw"een two ';'mmen rooming together in a Ball State University dormitory and the timing of their menstrual cycles. NcClintock (1971) condu.cted a similar study in an eastern all women college and found that within a period of four monthes the time of menses for roommates and close friends began to synchronize. The present study differed from that of McClintock i,n that the basic environnent was a co-educational instituti.on. Similar reproductive phenomenona to that observed - by HcClintock have been observed among other mammals, and the causes are believed to be pheromonal in nature. Pheromones are odors which carry messages from one individ­ ual to another. The 'ltvord itself is derived from the Greek pherein, to transfer; hormon, to excite. There is much current speculation on the possible role of pheromones in both nonhuman and human primate behavior. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE Karlson and Luscher (1959:55) defined pheromones as "substances which are secreted to the outside by an ind­ ividual and received by a second individual of the same species, in which they release a specific reaction, for example, a definite behaviour or a developmental process." Law and Regnier (1971) in their review article su'bdi vided pheromones into two divisions; releasers and prim1ers. Releasers had an immediate effect on the behavior of the recipient whereas primers had a delayed effect. 'rhese definitions were originally applied to insect pheromones. Pheromones were first discovered in 1896 when it was found that live female moths in cardboard traps could be used to attract male moths (Comfort, 1972). Sinee that time many different insect pheromones l'fi th many different functions have been identified. Law and Regnier (1971) cited examples of recruitment pheromones to increase foraging efficiency and alarm pheromones which sig;naled flight or aggression both of which were found in social insects. The sting apparatus of bees contained alarm pheromones which induced other bees to sting at the same location. Ants were also often attracted by alarm pher­ omones. The queen honeybee secreted a pheromone 'I'1'hich prevented the development of worker ovaries. 3 The majority of the studies on insect pheromones concentrated on those compounds vThich were responsible for sexual attraction. Many compounds which have the same attractive effect have been synthesized, and they may prove vA.luable in controlling harmful insects. Since pheromones are interspecific they do not have the broad spectrum effect of most insecticides which destroy both the useful as well as the harmful insects (Comfort, 1972). At this time pheromones have not proven to be feasible in controlling heavy insect infestations; how"ever, they have been useful in the control of light infestations. Pheromones have also been useful as an assay tool for measuring the size of insect populations, and the communica­ tion disruption effect of pheromones has been studied as a possible method of regulating population growth. Communica­ tion disruption consisted of spraying large doses of the male attractant pheromone over infested areas during the breeding season in order to confuse the males in their attempts to find the true females (Marx, 1973). The effect of olfactory stimuli such as the attraction of males to estrous females, have been observed in mammals for centuries. However, it was not until the early 1950's when olfactory influence on the reproductive cyclE~s of laboratory mice were observed that mammalian pheromones attracted serious scientific interest. Lee and Boot (1956) found that when female mice were grouped together in the absence of a male, many of the mice 4 became anestrous. These mice also exhibited a high rate of pseudopregnancies. Lee and .~ suspected that the stimulus was olfactory in nature, for neither phenomenon oecurred among mice in which the olfactory bulb had been removed. A few years after the discovery of what is now known as the Lee-Boot effect, Whitten (1959) found that grouped anestrous female mice would come into estrous when exposed to a male mouse or his urine. Furthermore, if all of the mice were exposed to this stimulus at the same time, the presence of the male served to synchronize their estrous cycles. A third pheromonal effect on the reproductj.ve pro­ cess in mice was discovered by Bruce (1959). When pregnant females were exposed to an unfamiliar male or his urine they reabsorbed their developing fetuses. The sexual maturation of mice may also be tnflu­ enced by pheromones. Drict~mer (1977) discovered that the first estrous of young female mice was delayed by exposure to either grouped females or their urine. Physical contact and social interaction with grouped females produeed no more delay in the sexual maturation of the young than did exposure to the urine of the grouped females alonE~. Another study discovered that there was an andr6gen­ dependent urinary pheromone in male mice which aceelerated sexual maturation in young females (Lombardi, 197(,). This pheromone appeared to be suppressed in both juvenile and - adult males when they were placed in a subordinatE~ social 5 - role to a . more dominant male. Production of this pheromone may be suppressed by the presence of pregnant or lactating females. Lombardi suggested that in high density populations the intense male-male interactions and the presence of preg­ nant and lactating females may have partially accounted for suppressed fertility in populations where males are abundant. Pheromones may have played a role in developing mother-young bonds in some rodents. r101 tz and LE~idahl (1977) suggested that in lactating female rats the prolactin in some manner altered the composition of the bile. This alteration effected the chemistry of the cecum of the rat which resulted in production of a maternal pheromone. This pheromone was secreted with the female's feces. After receiving injections of bile taken from lactatine~ female rats, males were also able to release this young··attractant pheromone. Doty (1976) reviewed several studies which indicated that pheromones may have played a role in the nursing activity, ,nest location, and clumping behavior of rodent young. Doty (1976) cited many other examples of the role of pheromones in non-primate mammalian behavior, both among domestic and feral animal populations. Many un~llates had special scent gland which were used to mark off terri­ tory. Odor might also have been important in the identifica­ tion of offspring by many female ungulates. The presence of male pigs ~vas able to hasten sexual development in prepubertal 6 females although it has hot been shmm whether the stimulus ~ras olfactory in nature. There TTaS also data that the pre­ sence of a ram was able to induce synchronized estrous in female sheep and that this stimulus was at least partially olfactory (Morgan et al., 1972). Michael and Keverne (1968) :round that anosmic male rhesus monkeys could not distinguish between attractive estrogenized females and unatrractive ovariectomi.zed females. Later (1970) these authors discovered that the previously unattractive oVariectomized females could be made attractive to normal ma,les when their genital areas were pai.nted with the washings from the vagin3.s of estrogenized females. They postulated that there were attractive chemicals ln the vaginal secretions of the estrogenized females ~.J'hich stim­ ulated both male interest and overt male sexual behavior (mounting and ejaculation) even though the ovariE~ctomized female l.;as not aroused and i'.J'as not giving the appropriate behavioral cues. Keverne and ~1ichael (1970) called these hypothesized chemicals "copulins." Copulins were isolated from female monkeys in 1971 (Michael et a1., 1971). They proved to be short chain aliphatic acids and were tentatively identified as acetic, propionic, isobutyric, isovaleric, and isocaprioc aCids. In tests with four males these aliphatic acids, when separated from the vaginal secretions and applied to oVariectomized females, caused a substantial increase in overt male sexual behavior. 7 The question still remains unanswered of how large a part learning plays in these reproductive behaviors. Goldfoot, et a1. (1978) attempted to repeat l\1ichael's exp­ eriments using sexually experienced males which he made anosmic.
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